Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Reports from the 1950s of emotional problems in adoptees

"The past is never fully gone. It
is absorbed into the present and the future. It stays to shape what we are
and what we do."Sir William Deane,
Inaugural Lingiari Lecture, Darwin, 22 August 1996.

Separating mother and child at
birth was the way adoption was practiced in Australia in the latter half of
last century. We have heard from other speakers about current knowledge
regarding the mental health consequences of this separation. In this paper I look
at adoption from a historical perspective, how adoption was practiced, what
was known about the consequences of adoption, and what influence, if any,
this knowledge had on adoption practice.

Brief history of adoption in Australia

Adoption was a social
experiment in which babies born to unmarried mothers were taken at birth and
given to strangers for adoption. It was claimed to be in the best interests
of the child, who would be protected from the slur of illegitimacy and would
have a better life in the adoptive family. Adoption enabled infertile married
couples to have a family, and the State saved money on its welfare bill.

Adoption legislation was
first introduced in Australia in the 1920s, but adoption was slow to be
accepted, due to the belief that immorality and other evil tendencies were
passed on from mother to child. After World War II, however, when environment
was seen as more important than heredity in the development of the child,
adoption became more popular. It was believed that mothers would not bond
with their babies if the babies were taken immediately after birth, and the
mothers were prevented from seeing them, and that babies would bond
successfully with their adoptive families if they were placed as soon as
possible after birth. All ties with the natural mother were then severed, the
child was issued with a new birth certificate which showed him as being born
to the adoptive parents, and the records were sealed.

Adoption was promoted as
being in the best interests of the child. Mothers were expected to forget
about their child and get on with their lives, get married and have children
of their own. Adoption was seen as an instant 'cure' for infertility. None of
these beliefs was based on any scientific evidence.

Reports from the 1950s of emotional problems
in adoptees

In fact there were
reports from Britain and the USA, from 1952 onwards, that a large number of
children seen in child guidance clinics and other psychiatric services were
adopted.

In 1952 a British psychiatrist,
Wellisch, drew attention to a problem of adoption - the lack of knowledge of
and definite relationship to one's genealogy, which he termed genealogical
bewilderment, and which could result in the stunting of emotional development
in adopted children and could lead them to irrational rebellion against their
adoptive parents and the world as a whole, and eventually to delinquency.
This was echoed in 1955 by Winnicott, who said ignorance about their personal
origin made adolescence more of a strain for adopted children than other
children, and in 1964 by Sants who wrote that genealogical bewilderment is a
factor which frequently appears to be present in adoption stress.